Cabbages and Condoms

Lots of my friends ask me about the pictures that appear randomly at the top of the page when you access the site.  At some stage, I’ll get round to labeling them so people know where they come from.

But the picture that I get asked about more than any other is the Cabbages and Condoms picture, and the picture below shows Iran, Roya, and Hannah standing outside this intriguing Bangkok establishment.

Cabbages and Condoms -- Bangkok

Cabbages and Condoms is a restaurant run by The Population and Community Development Association [PDA].  PDA’s description on their web site is as follows:

Founded in 1974, PDA is one of Thailand’s most well established and diverse non-government organisations. Operating from Bangkok, 16 regional development centres and and branch offices in rural Thailand, PDA’s programs are based on the belief that local people are best suited to shape and sustain their own development. PDA has pioneered grassroots growth marked by extensive villager involvement not only as beneficiaries but also as planners, managers and leaders.

With over 30 years experience PDA looks forward with renewed commitment to respond to current social and economic dilemmas with the innovation and ingenuity that have marked its achievements through the years.

PDA was first active in promoting family planning in urban and rural areas of Thailand, where knowledge of and access to such services were scarce. PDA recruited and trained respected members of local urban and rural neighbourhoods to distribute and provide information on affordable contraceptives directly to their communities. Other campaigns were tailored to the health of specific target groups such as factory workers, hill tribe villagers and adolescents. In total 12,000 volunteers plus several mobile health units distributed contraceptives to over 10,000 villages. Today PDA programs cover over one third of the country, helping to lower the national population growth rate from 3.2% to 1%.

The restaurant serves excellent Thai food at very good prices, and customers get additional satisfaction from knowing that the profits from the restaurant go to a good cause.  We thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Cabbages and Condoms and recommend it to anyone visiting Bangkok.

Cabbages and Condoms is located in the Sukhumvit business district and you can get there easily from the Asok Skytrain stop.

After you have eaten, instead of being given the customary mints, you get a condom!

No mints! Take a condom instead!

And the whole place is decorated with condoms as you can see in the photo of the condom Santa below.